Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 16 December 2004
229 Mr. O’Dowd asked the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the date on which a person (details supplied) began work on the spatial strategy; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33923/04]
View answer231 Mr. O’Dowd asked the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the reason the name of a company (details supplied) was not included in the reply to Parliamentary Question No. 172 of 10 October 2002; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33925/04]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 229 and 231 together.
I refer to the reply to Priority Question No. 4 of 16 December 2004. As indicated in that reply, the person referred to in the question was appointed in July 2002 as a communications consultant under a contract to assist the Minister and the Department on strategic communications matters. During the run-up to the finalisation and launch of the national spatial strategy in November 2002, it was decided that the communications campaign supporting the strategy should be intensified considerably and the communications consultant was actively involved in this work. This consultant's involvement in the NSS project, which began at this time, was undertaken under the general terms of the relevant contract with the Department. The reply to Question No. 172 of 10 October 2002 properly listed consultancy contracts which were specifically procured in relation to the national spatial strategy.
